F15a shock absorbers

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day All,

Slight correction of the previous information:

After looking at a few more Houdaille shock absorbers I seem to remember now that all have the factory chisel mark for the correct location of the arm on the wingshaft.

I am reasonably sure that the centre punch mark shown in the photo is for the location of the indicator arm on the tension adjustment screw. I believe this is also done at the factory where the correct tension in the shock absorber is set on the bench.

I read that somewhere but cannot put my finger on it to confirm.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

Good Day All,

Slight correction of the previous information:

After looking at a few more Houdaille shock absorbers I seem to remember now that all have the factory chisel mark for the correct location of the arm on the wingshaft.

I am reasonably sure that the centre punch mark shown in the photo is for the location of the indicator arm on the tension adjustment screw. I believe this is also done at the factory where the correct tension in the shock absorber is set on the bench.

I read that somewhere but cannot put my finger on it to confirm.

Cheers,

As I often say "When everything else fails- read the instructions". See attached photo from Maintenance Manual.
Tension adjuster arm points to chisel mark as per Maintenance Manual. It is also in line with the centre punch mark as it turns out. Makes sense as you have to mark both the shaft and the arm for alignment.

Cheers,

[Harlé Sylvain]

Hello
Thank you Jacques , if a" o ring" can fit, that's cool , it will be easy to find, will try to fix them that way.

Regards
Sylvain

[Dave Schindel]

I noticed that one of mine is leaking.I may have to disassemble it anyhow.Thanks for the pics and info Jacques

[Harlé Sylvain]

Hello
What about the puller that you used for the arm, I tryed different ways with a puller , with heat .....But it is still in place.


Other way I heard that the oil is glycerine oil and could be dangerous by heating?

Thank you
Sylvain

[Andrew H.]

Are these shocks the same as the Houdaille ones found on the Model A Ford? They look identical.

[Jacques Reed]

Hello Harle,

I was not present when the mechanic removed the shock absorber arms so I do not know what puller he used. He told me. however, that he made up one to do the job. He normally just restores A model Ford shock absorbers.

Heat: He used an oxy-acetylene torch to heat it at the arm around the rotor shaft. A simple propane torch would not be able to heat the arm rapidly enough to expand the hole to make removal easier. From my own experience removing frozen nuts, the speed at which you heat a frozen nut is the most important thing. The idea is to heat the nut rapidly before the heat transfers to the bolt so the nut expands more than the bolt to make the nut removal easier. This principle would also apply to removing the arm from the splined rotor shaft.

I was not there, but I would think it would need to be heated dull red at least to get the arm to expand far enough to pull it off the splines.

Safety: Yes, care must be taken whenever heat is used around any oil. I would assume they were drained and the heat only directed at the arm and the flame kept off the cover. If I did it I would place some insulating material between the cover and the arm also. Perhaps immersing just the cover into a tub of water leaving the arm above the water would be a good safety procedure while heating it.

And to answer your question Andrew they are similar in design but substantially different. Rotor arm shaft and method of attaching the arms are different and I haven't got an A Model shock to compare but I believe they are smaller than the Ford CMP truck ones.

Cheers,